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Adobe lines up emergency Flash fix

Reader and Acrobat fixes to follow

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Adobe plans to release a patch for an unpatched cross-platform flaw in Flash on Thursday (10 June), as a partial response to a critical bug that has become the target of hacking attacks over recent days.

However, updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat - which is also affected by the same zero-bug thanks to a vulnerable component that renders Flash files - will not be ready until June 29. In the meantime, users are advised to apply workarounds, as detailed in an updated advisory by Adobe here.

Adobe is trying to move its software patching practices towards releasing quarterly updates. But the severity of the latest Flash-related bug has forced it to tear up a planned timetable, and release updates to Reader and Acrobat (originally due on 13 July) a fortnight early.

A blog post by Brad Arkin, Adobe's director of product security and privacy, explains that the application developer decided the alternative approach of a one-off zero-day fix, followed by a full update two weeks later, was too confusing.

Flash Player 10.x for Windows, Mac and Linux is due on June 10. There's no date as yet for the release of Flash Player 10 for Solaris, a post by Adobe's security response team explains. ®